Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Judge tries to source
interpreter from CHINESE TAKEAWAYS as private company fails to provide one

In the latest farce to hit the privatised courts,
outsourcing giant Capita did not provide a Mandarin speaker for the case against
Sun Liu in Cardiff

A fuming
judge asked a lawyer to trawl Chinese takeaways for a stand-in interpreter as
the Government’s botched courts privatisation hit a new low.

Judge
Burr had already adjourned the case against Sun Liu at Cardiff Crown Court
once, as no Mandarin interpreter was provided by outsourcing giant Capita.

After
another no-show the next day Judge Burr asked Liu’s lawyer to search local
restaurants for help. The barrister refused and the case was adjourned a second
time.

Shadow
Justice Minister Andy Slaughter raged: “This is the latest example of how the criminal
justice system under David Cameron has descended into a complete farce.”

Liu was
in court on July 16 after allegedly failing to attend court in relation to
offences of importing banned goods. She denies all charges.

The case
finally got underway today, almost two weeks late.

It is
just one of thousands of cases each year which have been delayed or abandoned
since the Government privatised the court interpreter service in 2012.

Mr
Slaughter said: “The interpreters’ contract shambles has been widely documented
- but even by this Government’s standards this is embarrassing.”

Official
figures show almost 2,500 court cases were disrupted in the first three months
of this year alone. The number of interpreters turning up late has also soared
by 50 per cent over the last 12 months.

Capita
earns £18million-a-year from the contract but has never met its target of
providing interpreters in 98 per cent of cases.

The
service was revealed to be in “total chaos” by the Commons public accounts
committee in December 2012.

In May,
the country’s most senior family court judge said the situation was
“unacceptable”.

Sir James
Munby, head of the Family Division, was furious that two Slovak interpreters
booked for an adoption hearing on 7 May failed to turn up.

Mr
Slaughter said tonight: “It is depressing that over two years after Capita took
over court interpreting and translating services, they’ve still not got the
basics right.”

Capita
claimed it had “no record of unfulfilled bookings” at Cardiff Crown Court for
the specific case in July.

The
Government insisted the botched privatisation has saved millions of pounds.

Tory
Courts Minister Shailesh Varasaid: “As
a result of the contract, we have spent £27million less in the first two years
it has been running, and it continues to reduce the burden on taxpayers.

“We will
continue to drive further improvement in performance to deliver value for money
for the taxpayer.”

Minister
Shailesh Vara assures parliament that there is less and ever less to worry
about over interpreter delivery through Capita. He has that on the highest
authority: Capita itself, a wholly disinterested party – not.

As
against that: 2,480 cases disrupted due to the lack of an interpreter; a marked
rise in interpreters’ late arrival; still a significant falling back on the
old, tried and tested arrangement pre-framework agreement.

So
many instances in a quarter is scarcely small beer. How is it a cause for
rejoicing that the figure was even higher for the last quarter of last year?
There were no such major shortfalls before.

There
is no computation of the hidden costs of delays and disruption, let alone the
less measurable costs in emotional damage for parties to proceedings, to the
rule of law and its blood brother public confidence in the criminal justice
system. It is meaningless, therefore, to speak airily and arrogantly about
savings made.

Interesting,
is it not, that neither the Ministry of Justice nor Capita even bother any
longer to respond to my several outstanding complaints.

Justice
demands a return to candour and sanity, and sooner rather than later.

A
Crown court judge asked a defence barrister to trawl the Chinese restaurants of
Cardiff to find an interpreter after the company contracted to provide
translators failed to do so on two occasions.

The
Gazette has learned that Liu Sun was taken to Cardiff Crown Court on 16
July after being arrested on a warrant in relation to offences of importing
prohibited goods. She denies the charges.

His
Honour Judge Burr adjourned the case until the following day as no Mandarin
interpreter had been provided by Capita.

When
the case returned to court on 17 July there was still no interpreter, prompting
the judge to make the request, which the defence barrister declined to carry
out.

On
the third occasion the defendant was brought to court, an interpreter was
provided.

A
similar problem had occurred at the same court on 15 July when the case of
another Chinese defendant, Liu Guiying, had to be adjourned.

Last
week the Ministry of Justice published the latest quarterly statistics on the
court interpreter contract, which showed that for the first three months of
2014 the number of fulfilled requests rose, although the figure remains below
the 98% contractual commitment.

Of
45,100 requests made by courts and tribunals, Capita provided an interpreter in
94.5% of cases, suggesting that 2,480 cases were potentially disrupted due to
the lack of an interpreter.

In
relation to the first case, a spokeswoman for Capita said the company ‘does not
have a record of unfulfilled bookings for Cardiff Crown Court that match the
name and dates provided’.

On
the second, she said Capita assigned an interpreter but that the court had made
the booking for the wrong time and the interpreter could not make the revised
time. She said Capita ‘continued to try and source an alternative interpreter
up until the day of the booking and kept the court fully informed
throughout’.

Hundreds
of court cases requiring an interpreter were disrupted in the first quarter as
outsourcer Capita continued to fall short of its required performance target.

The
statistics for the first three months of 2014 show a rise in the number of
requests fulfilled, although the figure remains well below its contractual
commitment of 98%.

The
number of requests for an interpreter rose to 45,100 – the highest since the
contract began in January 2012.

The
percentage of requests completed rose by 4% from the last quarter of 2013 - to
94.5% - equal to the previous peak in the third quarter of 2012.

But
this means there were still 2,480 cases disrupted due to the lack of an
interpreter. At no point since the contract began has Capita reached the 98%
performance target.

The
data shows the overall number of complaints about the service have fallen to
the lowest number since the contract began.

There
were 1,000 (2.2% of cases) complaints, down by 21% from the 1,200 in the last
three months of 2013 and a 54% fall compared to the 2,100 complaints made in
the first quarter of 2013.

There
were 400 (45% of complaints) complaints due to no interpreter being available –
down from 1,200 in the same period of 2013.

But
the figures show a marked rise in the number of cases where an interpreter
arrived late – 300 complaints, compared to 200 in the first quarter of 2013.

Off-contract
bookings, where courts did not use Capita interpreters but contacted them
privately, dropped to 700, compared to 900 in the last three months of 2013.

A
Capita spokesperson said: ‘The number of completed requests continues to
increase quarter on quarter with fulfilment rates continuing to track to the
target level of service required. A continuous programme of improvements are
being implemented as we work together with stakeholders and is showing a
positive outcome in terms of quality and service levels, notably, the rate of
complaints for this quarter is lower than the same period in 2013.

‘We
expect future figures to demonstrate an improvement to fulfilment rates and a
continued reduction in complaints as well as continually delivering significant
savings to the Ministry of Justice.

‘Capita
Translation & Interpreting requires interpreters to sign up to a code of
conduct policy which stipulates arrival on time. Failure to adhere to the code
of conduct could result in interpreters being removed from our register.’